Thursday, August 07, 2008

WB Pitch

These are silly and just for fun. Not intended to desecrate the classics. No one can improve on the original directors' work. I'm just trying to help get the classic cartoons in the public eye again. It drives me crazy that these cartoons are barely seen anymore.

for Wicks

I've always wanted to do wraparounds to classic cartoons and managed to get some interest, so here are a few quick sketches for the pitch. Of course they would be more detailed and thought out once we actually made 'em, but these are just some ideas of degrees of varying from the models to see how the execs take to the idea.

I want to do the same sort of thing for the 40s cartoons and draw the bumpers in a caricatured Clampett style. (Don't worry, the arms and legs wouldn't be this skinny. This is just my doodle style, not my layout style)

46 comments:

Oh man, these are killer poses! Wow the idea of a biker version/show of Freddy and George.. gives me the goosebumps! But alas they'd probably make it like those emo warner brothers remakes or one of those weird cross overs.. oh dear!

One's gotta wonder what daffy's expression in the Wicks one is all about.. i mean does he really enjoy angry Fud that much?? Hehehe

It seems the original warner brother characters have been sidelined a lot these days, its good to see you whip 'em out!

A videogame art director gets rebuked by the game series fan on his "choice" of colours (the action-toy green and the playful wizard tower are his choices...), then he goes on defending his choices by replying to the fans on the MTV article. (By the way: a more realistic kind of lighting - even if faked by programming tricks - was already feasible 3/4 years ago, contrarily to what is stated in the article).

oh boy if those were ever accepted- i would think they'd be all over your stuff, and i'm surprised you were never invited to do any stuff for WB. wasn't their stuff always super- out in left field? you'd be a perfect fit.

Actually, Mike ( or should I refer to you by your species a la Maltese and Jones style latin: Wrongius Douchious ), I'm sure that if Chuck were aware of things going on with the WB characters after his death, the last person he'd get upset about re-interpreting his characters is John.

He truly disliked what Warners did a la Tiny Toons and Space Jam ( much like any fan would ) and I know he thought very highly of John and his abilities.

Wow, thanks for responding to my Misce-Looneyous post, John! I appreciate that. So your idea is just "wrap-arounds" then? Well, if it gets the classics back on TV in some form, I guess I can't bee too critical. A new "Bugs Bunny Show" would be a great thing. Just...please...don't do what you did to Yogi!

I love all those cartoons and have more respect for them than HB seemed to have for their own characters in the 70s and 80s.

But in WB's case, those are the best cartoons ever made and can't be improved upon.

What I want to do repackage the 50s cartoons with the original bumpers that Jones, Freleng and McKimson did (which were certainly different than the actual cartons in tone and style), but create another Bugs Bunny show to package the 40s wilder cartoons and draw the bumpers in a silly caricatured Clampett style. I would be more careful than these 30 second drawings I posted here, for sure.

I used to do crazy drawings the the WB characters for Clampett and he loved them. I know Chuck would hate 'em and I wouldn't blame him.

I have nothing but the greatest admiration for the old cartoons and want to see them popular again.

Chuck spoke very highly of you, in the single time I spoke with him, and he felt that you were doing the best job of bringing back cartoons in their purest form. "That's why cartoon execs don't like him," he said, "because Steven Spielberg wants to be the one to do it, but he doesn't know enough about cartoons. He just has enough money".

Obviously, this isn't a direct quote, I'm paraphrasing, but it was definitely how he felt.

I also know he was bitter about his relationship with Warners because he was very open about the desecration of the characters in SPACE JAM at a studio dinner, and they actually escorted him off the lot.

If bringing back interest in the classic cartoons is truly your intention ( which anyone who's paid any amount of attention to your career can see ), then I can't see why Chuck would be anything but proud. He might say something about Bugs' arms being too skinny, but I doubt it.

Reading the back & forth w/ you and Matthew and his irrational & misguided fears (my opinion) of you desecrating HB & WB ... as if they haven't done that themselves already. If anything, you'd bring 'em back to their smart and experimental roots.

Do you think anything recent comes close to the pure perfection that is the classic WB's? The more I see the more I believe that those heights can never be reached again. It's frustrating!!!

Did you see the Pixar short "Presto" before Wall-E? You can buy it for a couple bucks on iTunes. I'd love your thoughts on it, professor.

The wraparound repackage idea is great, and those old shorts should have a bigger audience than they get nowadays (hell, I'm only 21 and even I remember Loony Tunes on television). But man, when I think about what John could do with those old characters, it makes me wish we really were getting all new shorts. Its like, WB wants to use the faces of the characters, but doesn't want any of the risky emotions or story ideas that the original shorts had. No executive would allow The Great Piggybank Robbery or Whats Opera Doc? to made today.

HOLY CRAP!!! JOHN!!! that bugs construction post is amazing! i totally missed it too! that's why i love this blog! i had ripped some scenes of daffy from the great piggy bank robbery and i was trying to deconstruct it and write the x sheets and breakdowns for it and all. i love exercises like this! thanks so much for posting!!!

"That cinematic genius, Ivan Reitman, in charge of "Space Jam" said at the time of its production, "We're not doin' any of that Chuck Jones crap!""

That would explain why that movie wasn't near as good as it could've been. The best thing to be said for "Space Jam" is that it boosted the popularity of Looney Tunes again for a while. It wasn't the worst thing Warner Bros. has ever done to Looney Tunes, but it wasn't great. Too bad "Back in Action", a much better movie, flopped.

I say mix and match - caricatured HB and LT characters interact as they wraparound cartoons. Have them all reminiscing in a cartoon star retirement home - or encounter each other on a vacation cruise - or a "trade a spouse" parody.

If the corporate suits frown on the idea, just bypass them and do a show around some of the great classics now in public domain.

I am an animation student researching for my dissertation about the late great 2D animation renaissance and would like to ask you a few questions.

1. What was the industry like to work in before NickToons?2. Ren and Stimpy was incredibly different, a manic offshoot of Looney Tunes one might say, where in your mind did that come from?3. How did you feel when you got kicked off of Ren and Stimpy?4. How do you feel about hand-drawn animation?5. What do you think of the industry now?6. What do you hope for the future of the industry?